


Begin Again

by ChaoticDemon



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst with a Happy Ending, Food, Letters, Longing, M/M, Mentions of Frodo - Freeform, Mute Fili, Post-Canon, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-09 04:31:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8876014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticDemon/pseuds/ChaoticDemon
Summary: Bilbo opens the door to a familiar face.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mm8](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mm8/gifts).



> I hope this turned out alright. I'm sick and stressed out with a bunch of family drama, so I'm not a great judge of the quality of my work. Hopefully I'll get a chance to look it over again before it's revealed.

It wasn’t the first time that Bilbo wished he could slam his door in someone’s face, but it had been a while since he had felt the urge with anyone but Lobelia. He took in the figure standing on his doorstep, cloak dripping with the rain that splattered against the dirt. He sighed. He stepped back and held the door wide open. The figure stepped through. Bilbo tried not to look at his visitor too closely; he was afraid of saying something he’d regret. “You remember where to hang your coat,” he said before he strode into the dining room.

He busied himself by setting the table. His nerves were making him fidgety and he couldn’t help but eye the cutlery a bit more critically than usual. He’d moved on to rearranging the bowls and plates when he felt eyes on him. A shiver rushed down his spine despite himself. “I imagine you’re hungry,” the hobbit said. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on no music tonight. Frodo is already asleep and I don’t want to wake him.”

Heavy footsteps thudded across the floor and the dwarf sat himself in one of the chairs. Bilbo dared a glance at the familiar braids and golden hair. Fili’s eyebrows were scrunched in confusion even as his eyes watched Bilbo. The blond reached out toward the hobbit; Bilbo wanted nothing more than to let let him make contact. He hastily shoved a bowl of apples in the dwarf’s direction, intercepting his hand. Fili looked at the fruit. He looked at Bilbo. Slowly, he picked up an apple.

Bilbo sat himself across the table. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with his hands, so he tucked them underneath his thighs the best he could. Fili bit into the apple with a loud crunch. “Why are you here?” the hobbit asked. Holding the apple in his mouth, the dwarf reached into his coat and produced an envelope. He set it on the table and slid it in Bilbo’s direction.

Bilbo was very familiar with the handwriting on the front. He’d lost count of how many letters he’d received with his name written in the same hand. “You traveled halfway across Middle-earth to give me a letter,” Bilbo stated flatly. Fili had the nerve to grin at him. “Is that why I haven’t gotten any in the last eight months? I thought you’d finally gotten the hint and given up.” The dwarf’s smile wavered, but didn’t vanish. He picked up the envelope and held it out to the hobbit. Bilbo huffed and got to his feet.

“You’re ridiculous,” the hobbit said as he rooted through his sideboard. He hauled out a few jars and set them on the table with a dull thud. “For decades, now, you’ve been sending letters and I’ve yet to send a single response. You know very well that it wasn’t because those letters got lost.” He let out a breath through pursed lips and took in what he’d placed on the table: apple jelly, strawberry jam, the last of the marmalade. Bilbo moved to the pantry and piled loaves of bread into his arms. “I was ignoring you. You didn’t get any replies because I didn’t want to send them.” 

He set the bread on the table. He took in the food before him. “Knife,” the hobbit said to himself. “I need a knife.” He moved to grab one. There was a clatter of something being set on top of the crockery. Bilbo looked to his plate. There was a knife resting on top of it. Bilbo didn’t recognize it. The hobbit frowned, but picked it up. The blade was long and serrated; the handle was decorated to look like ivy. “Why in heaven’s name are you carrying around a bread knife?” he wondered aloud.

Fili bit his lip and looked away for a moment. He took a deep breath and looked back to Bilbo. He signed something and pointed at Bilbo. It had been years since the hobbit had the opportunity to practice Iglishmêk and he couldn’t quite make out what Fili was trying to communicate. Fili signed it again, slower this time.

“It’s a gift?” Bilbo asked. “For me?” The dwarf nodded. BIlbo sighed. “What are you doing, Fili?” he questioned. “It’s been so long since the quest, since I’ve gone home. None of the reasons why I left have changed. If anything, I’ve only gotten more reasons to stay here. A bread knife isn’t going to change that, no matter how beautiful it is.”

The dwarf’s shoulders drooped. ‘You’re certain?’ he signed, just as slowly as before. ‘I’ve got more kitchen knives in my coat.’

“Of course I’m sure,” Bilbo told him. “Regardless of anything else, I’ve got Frodo to think of. I told him I’d raise him, and I can’t very well keep that promise by leaving him behind here. And he’s already been through enough in his life. I’m not going to take him away from the Shire and all his friends.”

‘I could stay here,’ Fili signed, ‘in the Shire.’

The hobbit frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m not sure how Frodo will take another person living here with us. And what if the two of us end up arguing like before? I won’t let that happen around him. Besides, don’t you have responsibilities in Erebor?”

The dwarf made the signs for his uncle, his brother, his mother. ‘I could stay at the Ivy Bush,’ he offered. ‘That is, if there’s any part of you that wants to have another try at this. I know it’s been a long time and maybe you don’t feel the same way anymore, but I’d like to try this again.’

Bilbo sat back down in his seat. He thought of all the letters that he’d wanted to write, responses to the letters that he’d meticulously saved. “There’s a lot things that we need to work through,” he said. “Everything ended so horribly last time. I’m not sure I can go through that again.”

‘So we start over,’ signed Fili, ‘and take it slow.’ He reached out to take Bilbo’s hands; this time the hobbit let him.

“Very slow,” Bilbo told him. Fili nodded and tightened his fingers around Bilbo’s. Bilbo squeezed back.


End file.
